Adlene Mellah Was Released !

This is the way Democracy is built as through assiduous, continuous and countless but very professional efforts, all needed at every step of the way.

It’s not been and could never be the case of a radical change brought by one election or by a ginormous ‘constituent assembly’. It’s a matter of an indefatigable and synchronised move throughout and by the country’s numerous and strategic professionals of the Press, and above all the Law towards achieving amongst many things, higher standards.

The mobilization
for his release finally paid off; the verdict was made in the course of the
trial against Adlène Mellah, he will be released tonight from prison after his
sentence has been commuted to a six-month suspended sentence.

At the end of a tense and trying day for those who have surveyed the ‘Pas Perdus’ Hall of the Court of Algiers, the defense of the imprisoned journalist, who was about forty lawyers strong, had agreed to let only a few lawyers plead and expedite the appeal trial that took place today in the court of Ruisseau, Algiers. This defense decision was made to release the tension on their client after he fainted during the break at 7:00 pm.

This trial that
began at 11:00 am this Wednesday, January 23, 2019, was an ordeal for Adléne
Mellah who has been on hunger strike for more than three weeks. He joined the court courtroom with crutches.
He looked weakened and answered questions sitting on a chair; the scene that
caused the fainting of his wife who was evacuated from the room.

The courtroom was
full of bursts, very early on, many journalists, friends, politicians and
ordinary citizens had come to the trial to attend. Politicians such as Rachid Nekaz,
representatives of Jil Jadid and the activist of the Gathering for Culture and
Democracy (RCD), Feta Sadate were present.
Associations and organizations also followed the process of the trial
such as Amnesty International, RAJ, LADDH and the families of the missing among
others.

During the trial,
the lawyers had the opportunity to share with the press many elements to the
accused’s discharge. Mr Hebboul will put his finger on a flaw in the case; it
concerns the requisition issued by the Governor of Algiers that was addressed
to a police commissioner who was no longer in office, moreover, according to
the lawyer the order mentioned the prohibition of Resident Doctors’
demonstrations.

In the minutes
drawn up by the police, the lawyers have noted the absence of the name of the
officer who wrote the document which makes it legally inadmissible by the
court. This will be the object of the plea of Maître Abdellah Haboul, lawyer of
Adlène Mellah. The prosecutor will eventually reply that this omission was due
to an oversight on the part of the officer in charge.

Still, regarding
the police’s statement, the lawyers will notice a glaring error in the
description of the unfolding of events. Indeed, in the file of Mellah, it is
noted that he was present in two different places at the same time. According
to the report, he would have been on December 9, 2018, on the edge of the cafe
Tontonville at 3:30 pm. Then he was also listed at the same time and by the
minute by the police to the commissariat of the Lower Casbah, a kilometer and a
half farther. It is the impossibility of ubiquity that lawyers are advancing to
reject their client’s file.

Another grievance
retained by the defence is the fact that the three accused, Laadjal, Negrouch
And Mellah did not benefit from the regulatory rest at their hearing. Worse
yet, Adlène Mellah would not have been entitled to any medical consultation
following his custody on December 11, 2018.